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Best 14500 battery & IC protection or not?

Apologies if this is in the incorrect section of the forum (mods feel free to move this if you will).

I recently bought a JETBeam PA10 flashlight (dont tell the wife lol) which im currently using with AA's (its a really cool EDC, light, prefer it to my BC10 but perhaps thats because of its output!)
To use it to its full potential of 650 lumens I need to use a 14500 battery apparently (it seems to be outputting around 300-400 lumens already from what my eyes can make out comparing it to my others).
My first stop for this kind of thing is usually Amazon, but there seems to be limited and crappy choice of batterys as nothing appears to be IC protected like 18650's im used to buying for my other lithium battery lights.

So after a lengthy introduction, my questions are:

- What are the best 14500 batterys on the market... high capacity, good quality ones?
- Being lithium batterys, is it important to buy IC protected ones as you would with 18650 to use in LED flashlights?
- Where can I buy them in the UK (dont answer this if youre not allowed to reply due to forum rules but i just want to get some!)

Re: Best 14500 battery & IC protection or not?

I tried many different 14500's in my jet-pro 1, some didnt fit right, some had horrible run time. If I have learned anything if you go ahead and get the AW brand, you will always be OK. There are other brands with a higher mAh raiting, but you write anything you want on the side of a cell, it dosent make it true. With AW you always know what you getting. I have always thought the ICpro. to be a must, you can put alot of money in your cells, its best to protect them. You may check with lighthound.com I think that i seen they had overseas shipping, hope this helps.

Re: Best 14500 battery & IC protection or not?

Thank you for the prompt answer, I havent come across the "AW" brand before... where is it from? (not that it makes a difference if its good I guess).
Would also like to hear some more suggestions from members as I am in the UK and would prefer to rder from here if at all possible and would like to know of some other good brands to check out.

Re: Best 14500 battery & IC protection or not?

The saft I have seen many times, and heard good things, but have never used them. The other I have never heard of, dosent mean its bad, just I know nothing of it, but I think you hit the nail on the head, I didnt read anything about ICP on either, or did it look as if it had one on the negative end. The AW 18650's I know are all using the panasonic(japan) cells(suposed to be one of the highest raited), it would only stand to reason the 14500's are the same. I did find a UK dealer for AW, but I am waiting on a respons to see if its ok to tell you, or you can just google ( AW battery dealer in UK ), it should be the first one to come up. Take care.

Re: Best 14500 battery & IC protection or not?

Thanks for the info, I think I'll try a couple of the SAFT as I found a place to buy them.
I cant seem to find any manufacturers website for AW... where ate they based?
They sound like quite a reputable brand going on the opinions of people on this site but it seems weird they have no website for themselves like other competitors do.

Re: Best 14500 battery & IC protection or not?

Originally Posted by twicksisted

Thanks for the info, I think I'll try a couple of the SAFT as I found a place to buy them.
I cant seem to find any manufacturers website for AW... where ate they based?
They sound like quite a reputable brand going on the opinions of people on this site but it seems weird they have no website for themselves like other competitors do.

I dont know why AW doesnt have a site, they would sell so much more. Here is the thread where they post their products, just follow the instructions. Hint: Bookmark this link.